A UAE engineer has been given a National Innovation Award by software giant Microsoft after using its PowerPoint programme to help people design their own homes.
Fatima Jasem Al Zaabi, a 31-year-old Emirati, was presented with the award at Microsoft Open Door 2014 in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday. Her PowerPoint programme gives people of all skill levels the tools needed to layout a villa.
As well as the award, Fatima has also received an invitation from US President Barack Obama to attend a forthcoming White House dinner, where she will be honoured along with other members of the global business community for their various contributions to technological innovation.
"PowerPoint is traditionally used to show projects and slideshows, but I have discovered that we can do so much more with it," Al Zaabi told 7DAYS at the Open Door event. She said she dropped out of a civil engineering course at Al Khwarizmi International College in Al Ain with the goal of creating her own architectural software programme.
She taught herself everything she needed to know about programming and came up with the novel way to use PowerPoint.
"There are many programmes for engineering management that can be used to draw villas in 2D or 3D designs, but these can be difficult to use without the proper training," said Fatima. "I wanted to create something that even beginners could use easily."
The programme took her six years to develop.
© 7Days 2014
